Young People Lured to Internet Gambling

A new research from the University of Adelaide studied the behaviour of 128 people addicted to internet gambling through the so called free-play or practice modes. This study was done by a Psychology student Tahnee Frahn performed the study on the players who were playing at a simulated internet gaming site. Ms Frahn says concerns have been raised about the dubious strategies used by internet gamblers to entice players.

A previous research has demonstrated that free-play or practice modes at some internet gaming sites provide unrealistically high returns to the players. As quite often they are encouraged with pop up messages during practice modes on certain gambling behaviours and risk taking persistence.

All of those who became a part of the study were offered a free play mode on a simulated internet gaming site that provided unrealistically high returns to players.

Ms Frahn’s study looked at the psychological effect of the pop up messages during practice modes on subsequent gambling behaviours.

All those who took part in the study were offered a free play mode on a simulated internet gaming site followed by a real play mode in which they could gamble with real cash. Two of the three groups that received high return in a free play mode and those who received the high return and the pop up encouragements were. According to Ms Frahn, this suggested a greater risk taking and also a belief that higher returns in practice mode will continue during the real gambling phase as well. The practice modes at internet gambling sites set the illusion that practice makes a man perfect. But, again no amount of practice can make you better in games of chance like poker where in the sole purpose is to make profits. There is a growing issue in our society that requires attention especially in concern to internet gambling addiction. In the recent years, internet gambling has expanded at an exponential rate. It started with 30 sites in the year 1994 and has gone up to more than 2200 sites in 2009. Ms Frahn adds that “it is difficult to simulate the risk and excitement of the real world gambling in a controlled setting.”